Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Little Prince


I do research on books I want to read. A book on my list must somehow be talked about, not necessarily very popular. But I do not read reviews just yet (or sometimes never)  because those can affect my opinions towards a book. If some people say the book is extraordinary, then it must be so I'm reading it. I do not want to make the same mistake again of just entering a bookstore, reading a book's description at the back and if I'm feeling right, then I'm getting it. That should not be, at least not for me. I ended up being frustrated because the book was not really what I wanted or worse, I choose not to finish it. It was such a waste of time and money. 

I have few books on my list now and the last item is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I was surveying bookstores online and 'offline' (hihi)  finding the best deal. Little did I know that The Little Prince is just sitting around my shelf for so many years now! I did not notice it because I was busy with my "matters of consequence" as the Little Prince puts it. Someone lent it to me but I guess the old ugly brown pages took away the interest in me. The cover was not even original anymore. The book title was rewritten using a red marker. Shame on me for literally judging the book by its cover. Haha!


from Google images


Now let's go to the five reasons why I love The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.


1. The story is short. I love finishing a book in a snap. Once I read the first words of any book, I'm always in a hurry to get to the end, always curious of how the story will end so I am glad that this book has few pages in it. After all, it has already been taken for granted long enough. It has to be read and finished at once! But then again, I have a dilemma with books of few pages. At times, I also don't want to finish reading a book because I'm having such a good time with it. I don't want to lose the feeling of awesomeness especially when I'm at the climax. Haha! Confused moments.


2. It's a children's book for grown ups. How amazing is that? I mean this is not one of those Disney fairy tales. I think it's a children's book because the title seems to say so, the main character is a child, the animals are talking but it was written somehow poetically that a young child could hardly grasp. Furthermore, the issues 'discussed' are too complicated for a child to handle. The book reminds us that we were once a child but we tend to forget that when we become grown ups.



3. It makes me want to read real children's books again. Those which I was only forced to read because I had to submit book reports. Well, I was not really forced. I felt obliged because it was part of school works. It was really seldom that I did it for leisure but now, I'm inspired to read again fables, fairy tales and the likes with great moral lessons at the end.


4. The drawings are not extraordinary. This is part of the story. The narrator is not an artist but attempted to draw as a young boy. He was discouraged when the adults found his drawing differently from what he wanted to imply. I find this funny because I also find the drawing as a hat had it not stated that it was a picture of a boa constrictor which swallowed an elephant. I hope I'm not giving away too much here. Drawings being far from attractive is a good thing to me because it looks so childlike and I can identify with not so extraordinary drawings. In all years of my existence, my considered masterpiece is a five-petal flower with a toothpick-like stem and two confused-between-oval-or-round leaves. :)

5. I love the dedication. 'To Leon Werth when he was a little boy', which makes me want to dedicate it  to myself too when I was a little girl and to the child in all of us. May we always be reminded that 'what is essential is invisible to the eye.'





... An ordinary passer-by would think that my rose looked just like you - the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone, she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen...





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